The Personal Development Program was designed and delivered by The Stephen Michael Foundations’ Behavioural Specialist Theresa Bates. The program comprises of four key units each of which has corresponding topics and discussion areas created to engage and challenge participants:

• Decision Making
• Respect & Responsibility
• Leadership
• Nutrition

In the initial stages the program was delivered after school at the local Meekatharra Youth Centre in partnership with the Meekatharra Shire’s Youth Services. Across term 2 and 3 the personal development sessions have focused on the Year 7-10 students at Meekatharra District High School with sessions being delivered at school during school hours.

To date, the Personal Development Program has been delivered to more than 60 youth participants in Meekatharra.

Across school terms two and three the Stephen Michael Foundation delivers AFL clinics to students at Meekatharra District High School. Sessions are delivered fortnightly in term two and monthly in term three and reach every year group at the school.

More than 60 students from the school have participated in the clinics which have included:

• Basic skill development
• Match Play
• Game awareness
• Umpiring

The AFL clinics are utilised by the school to promote school attendance and behaviour with participants needing to meet school standards to attend the sessions.

To support the increased sports activities being delivered in Meekatharra, the Stephen Michael Foundation is delivering a range of coaching and umpiring sessions to local community members and targeted staff through the Meekatharra Shire, the local police and Meekatharra District High School.

Each month the Stephen Michael Foundation deliver a cooking/nutrition program to identified clients of Mission Australia. These clients have been identified by Mission Australia as needing additional support and understanding of meal preparation and the benefits of good nutrition. Many of the clients attending the program are parents whose children are also involved in other Stephen Michael Foundation programs.

Each week Mission Australia provide free hot meals to residents in Meekatharra through a program known as the Consuls Café. More than 50 people receive hot meals every Tuesday night at the Consuls Café which is based in one of the poorer areas of Meekatharra. Given the importance of the program to the community, the Stephen Michael Foundation provide direct funding to Mission Australia to support the program. The Stephen Michael Foundation are also working closely with Mission Australia to develop a sustainable model for the program and to integrate the cooking/nutrition program into the café.

To reward students from Meekatharra District High School who had displayed good behaviours at school during term one, the Stephen Michael Foundation hosted 20 students and 10 support staff for a weekend in Perth during the AFL Indigenous Round. The special weekend culminated in the students playing at half-time of the AFL Indigenous Round Match in front of more than 50,000 spectators.

The students were selected by teachers from Meekatharra District High School based on their attendance and behaviour in school. Students were also required to attend after school football training which was delivered in partnership by the Shire of Meekatharra and the Stephen Michael Foundation.

Once the final list was selected the travelling students got to participate in a range of exciting activities including:

• School football clinic at Fremantle College
• Presentation from guest speaker West Coast Eagles Player Brendon Ah Chee
• Behind the scenes tour of new Fremantle Dockers Facility in Cockburn
• Dinner and short tour of Fremantle including a session in Time Zone
• Meeting with Stephen Michael and South Fremantle Football players
• Athletics clinics delivered by Little Athletics
• Played at half-time of AFL Indigenous Round match featuring West Coast v St Kilda
• Watched the West Coast Eagles v St Kilda match

With the majority of the students in attendance possessing deteriorated football boots or no boots at all, each of the students had their shoe sizes measured on the camp and were presented with a new set of football boots in time for the Meekatharra NAIDOC Football Carnival.

In recognition of NAIDOC Week the Stephen Michael Foundation developed the Meekatharra NAIDOC Football Carnival in partnership with the Meekatharra NAIDOC Working Group, Mission Australia, Meekatharra District High School and the Shire of Meekatharra. The carnival featured representative teams from Meekatharra, Wiluna, Carnarvon and Geraldton competing in a round robin tournament. The carnival was run in the July school holidays and targeted both boys and girls aged 8-13. More than 70 kids participated in the carnival and with notable support from local volunteers and family members on the day.